Monday, June 21, 2010

Cross frame for the guy that revolutionized west coast racing

Originally, cyclocross in California and elsewhere was kind of an obstacle course torture track that only circus performers could master . This style of racing, though amusing for spectators bared no resemblance to European cyclocross racing. About 15 years ago, a fellow in Santa Cruz who was helping the local promoter set up courses noted that the races were not wery well attended and there were some pretty bad injuries as a result of the "Jungle-cross" courses. This man was and is Jeff Clark. Jeff did a bit of research and discovered that cyclocross in the classic sense was a much faster, flatter type of racing that didn't involve river crossings, scrambling over fallen redwood trees five feet in diameter or jumping drainage ditches eight feet wide and four feet deep. Jeff proceeded to change the course designs for the Surf City cyclocross series and the result was an increased amount of participants and spectators. Not only that, the local racers started doing better on the national scene and some even went and raced in Europe with some success. I feel that everyone who currently races cyclocross and enjoys it owes something to Jeff Clark. I built him the best frame out of the best set of materials I had in my shop. This is the result. I only had one of these tubesets left and it might be a year or more before I see another one. I can think of nobody more deserving than Jeff as ironically, he has been to hundereds of races as a course manager but only now is thining of racing. Maybe this frame will help make it fun , just like Jeff's influence has made 'cross racing fun for hundereds of racers, including myself.